No more eyeball management – Best Buy’s shift in perspective about work

One of the main principles of working in The Anywhere Office™ and having the flexibility to work where and when you want is a shift in perspective about what defines “work”. As the saying goes “work is something you do, not someplace you go”.

For managers of remote workers or virtual teams the shift away from eyeball management (knowing someone is working because you see them working) and learning to gauge employee productivity by measurable goals and objectives is often one of the most difficult parts of the transition. However the more fully you can embrace this philosophy, the greater the benefit you stand to derive from a flexible workplace.

For those who think “but how could we do this in our organization” take a look at what Best Buy is doing with their new program called ROWE.

The endeavor, called ROWE, for “results-only work environment,” seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

This is an excellent case study of this shift in perspective. I applaud their efforts and look forward to following this story as they expand this philosophy throughout their organization.

Best Buy smashes the clock – BusinessWeek Online – MSNBC.com

Speaking at the 2006 Document and Training Conference in Boston

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Management Summit of the 2006 Documentation and Training conference in Boston. The conference centers around knowledge management, repurposing content, and the best ways to centralize and share information among knowledge workers, customers, and clients.

My presentation was on how to create Effective Virtual Teams. I shared many of the concepts and tools of The Anywhere Office we discuss in this blog and on the radio show regarding information, communcation, and collaboration.

I met some really nice people and got a peak at some new digital document technology coming out from a variety of vendors. Very interesting.

Many advantages to a virtual office and company

I came across a great article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe called “Virtual Office is what you make it” talking about the trend of working in a virtual office and how for many entrepreneurs and startups they grow their businesses this way from the ground up.

“The future is likely to be the age of virtual businesses,” writes Anita Campbell, founder of Small Business Trends. “Forget three guys in a garage — that was your father’s startup. Today it’s three people spread out across the country or even across continents, each in their home offices or back porches with laptops, mobile phones, and WiFi.”

Check out the article for some interesting insight on virtual companies.

Business continuity and disaster recovery teleseminar audio and handouts posted

I am pleased to announce that our free teleseminar yesterday on business continuity and disaster preparedness was a great success. We were joined by 3 panelists other than myself.
All the presentations were full of expert advice and suggestions on how to develop a solid business continuity plan for businesses of all size – from organizations to solo professionals. They also shared some excellent resources, tools, and websites.

We have posted the handouts and the audio from this event online at www.YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com/beprepared/ so you can still benefit from this valuable information.

Please check it out and post any questions you have here or give us feedback. Enjoy!

Premier Call Center 2.0 Conference in San Diego, October 10-13

Our friends at The Telework Coalition are coming to the San Diego Convention Center October 10 – 13, 2006 as part of the Call Center 2.0 Conference.. The Telework Coalition will be presenting 8 educational sessions on the benefits of using Work@Home Agents and the benefits of using a more virtual call center staff versus the brick and mortar approach.

Chuck Wilsker, President of the Telework Coaltion was our guest on a previous show, Show # 7: Telework and the Government, and is sure to put on some very informative sessions.

Click here for more information or to register.

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